The Political Interest: A Poverty of Compassion

A Poverty of Compassion

Was that a new Newt delivering his inaugural address as Superspeaker last week? It certainly seemed to be. The meanspirited rantings Gingrich's conservative audiences eagerly expect were gone. In their place, as Representative Charles Schumer says, was a speech "most any liberal Democrat" could have given, a talk remarkable for its professed compassion. "You can't believe in the Good Samaritan," Gingrich said, "and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who's hurt and not do something." Newt even acknowledged that his pet project, a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, lacked "the moral...